So I’m a little late on harvesing scapes, but better late than never, eh? Too woody to eat the bottom portion, but definitely looking forward to using them for flavor/aroma. Plus, bulbils are like the gods’ minced garlic! The first time I saw one, I thought, “what if people knew you could GROW minced garlic?” :P

First try at homemade flea repellant, using what we have on hand- rosemary needles, tea tree leaves, lemon, grapefruit, tangerine. I’ll let you know how it works. Any suggestions for future decoctions?

A general rule when seeding (there are always exceptions!) is to cover the seed with dirt 2x the width of the seed.

In the first photo you can see that I can fit three peas from the tip of my finger to my first knuckle. Or, one pea plus twice that for dirt. So in the second photo, I am poking holes down to my first knuckle.

this is the easiest thing ever! I had some fresh rosemary from the store, sitting in a bit of water in the kitchen for about a week. Yesterday afternoon we did a bit of spring cleaning and I figured I should use it, before it goes bad! An odd predicament since I usually use it all the same day I buy it. So I took two sprigs (the ones with the thickest, “woodiest” stems), pulled off the bottom two inches of needles, cut the bottom 1/4 inch off to leave a heel, and put them in another cup with 2” of water and a little dirt (my preferred brand of potting mix- containing 70% [locally-produced] compost) in the bottom. I stuck that cup under my lights and at noon today, both had already sent out roots! Two less starts for me to buy this year :)

Today was my first visit to the MFBN storehouse. I, along with other students and Garden City Harvest co-founder Josh Slotnick, trimmed, packed, weighed and labeled over 1500 lbs of GCH cabbage for distribution.

The way the government has misappropriated the word "organic" is incredibly misleading and somewhat angering.

"Organic" now means many things, and in the scope of food it means a farm has paid large amounts of money and followed strict standards in order to be able to carry this label. But in the grand scheme of things for those of us that care about the impacts of monocultures and high-input agriculture, for those of us that realize our species is going to have to get in or get out on the ecologically appropriate technology train sometime soon, "organic" doesn’t really mean shit anymore. And it’s sad. There, I said it. It may have contained too many buzzwords but that just goes to show there’s an entire language evolving around this mess we’re in.

The vegetables I eat are not considered organic by the government. These vegetables DID come from plants; isn’t that organic? Better yet, my vegetables were produced with methods that are much more ecologically sound than anything implied by “USDA Organic.” I know this because I either grew them myself, or have had personal conversations with the person that grew them, after visiting their farm. And guess what? They usually cost less than ANYTHING in the grocery store. Same goes for animal products (most of the time- sometimes I do buy meat from producers that farmers I trust have endorsed to me, without meeting the farmer myself).

THE ONLY WAY TO KNOW WHAT’S IN YOUR FOOD IS TO KNOW YOUR FARMER.INTIMATELY.

As in: you should trust this person with your life. Because that’s what you’re doing.

I’ve been mulling over what kinds of material to post as I go through my western herbalism classes. Since it is a course that is offered for a nominal fee, I want to respect that this is how these professionals make a living, and not give out their material for free.

The classes mostly involve the actual method and making of medicines. I will be using class discussions as a jumping-off point for topics of interest, and then doing independent research, which I will then share with you. Most of my research will be online, in which case I will provide links. If I am working from books, I will post some kind of reference to the book.

Now that I think about it, I will make a photo post showing the books I currently have in my personal library. I know I’m the kind of person that can remember the cover of a book far better than the name or author.

So I’m going to get some things into my queue, and if you have any suggestions or submissions, please don’t hesitate! I love meeting people on tumblr.